C-Legged Hexapod Robot Design Guidelines Based on Energy Analysis

C-legged hexapod robots offer a balanced trade-off between the robust stability of wheeled robots and the increased-motion capabilities of legged robots, and therefore, are currently of great interest. This article investigates the impact of mass, leg radius, and angular velocity on the energy consu...

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Main Authors: Andres Vina, Antonio Barrientos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/6/2513
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author Andres Vina
Antonio Barrientos
author_facet Andres Vina
Antonio Barrientos
author_sort Andres Vina
collection DOAJ
description C-legged hexapod robots offer a balanced trade-off between the robust stability of wheeled robots and the increased-motion capabilities of legged robots, and therefore, are currently of great interest. This article investigates the impact of mass, leg radius, and angular velocity on the energy consumption of C-legged hexapod robots, in order to develop a set of design guidelines that maximize the robot’s performance. The kinematic model of a single C-leg system is obtained and used to determine the system’s energy consumption associated with gravitational potential energy (GPE) and kinetic energy (KE) variations. Both the kinematic model and energy model are validated in a custom-made test bench. Our results show that the kinematic model very accurately predicts the trajectory of the system in space, but due to the varying load experienced by the motor, the system lags compared to the model predictions. Furthermore, the energy model has been also validated experimentally and successfully predicts the motor consumption periods. Using the energy model, it has been concluded that the angular velocity of the leg and the leg radius have an exponential relationship with motor peak power demand—directly affecting the motor selection. On the other hand, the mass is inversely proportional to the robot efficiency, and therefore, must be kept as low as possible.
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spelling doaj.art-bfefa8064a2f46269c15d2b2f09042862023-11-21T10:05:23ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172021-03-01116251310.3390/app11062513C-Legged Hexapod Robot Design Guidelines Based on Energy AnalysisAndres Vina0Antonio Barrientos1Centro de Automática y Robótica (UPM-CSIC), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, SpainCentro de Automática y Robótica (UPM-CSIC), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, SpainC-legged hexapod robots offer a balanced trade-off between the robust stability of wheeled robots and the increased-motion capabilities of legged robots, and therefore, are currently of great interest. This article investigates the impact of mass, leg radius, and angular velocity on the energy consumption of C-legged hexapod robots, in order to develop a set of design guidelines that maximize the robot’s performance. The kinematic model of a single C-leg system is obtained and used to determine the system’s energy consumption associated with gravitational potential energy (GPE) and kinetic energy (KE) variations. Both the kinematic model and energy model are validated in a custom-made test bench. Our results show that the kinematic model very accurately predicts the trajectory of the system in space, but due to the varying load experienced by the motor, the system lags compared to the model predictions. Furthermore, the energy model has been also validated experimentally and successfully predicts the motor consumption periods. Using the energy model, it has been concluded that the angular velocity of the leg and the leg radius have an exponential relationship with motor peak power demand—directly affecting the motor selection. On the other hand, the mass is inversely proportional to the robot efficiency, and therefore, must be kept as low as possible.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/6/2513mobile robotsC-legged hexapodkinematic modelenergy modelgait modes
spellingShingle Andres Vina
Antonio Barrientos
C-Legged Hexapod Robot Design Guidelines Based on Energy Analysis
Applied Sciences
mobile robots
C-legged hexapod
kinematic model
energy model
gait modes
title C-Legged Hexapod Robot Design Guidelines Based on Energy Analysis
title_full C-Legged Hexapod Robot Design Guidelines Based on Energy Analysis
title_fullStr C-Legged Hexapod Robot Design Guidelines Based on Energy Analysis
title_full_unstemmed C-Legged Hexapod Robot Design Guidelines Based on Energy Analysis
title_short C-Legged Hexapod Robot Design Guidelines Based on Energy Analysis
title_sort c legged hexapod robot design guidelines based on energy analysis
topic mobile robots
C-legged hexapod
kinematic model
energy model
gait modes
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/6/2513
work_keys_str_mv AT andresvina cleggedhexapodrobotdesignguidelinesbasedonenergyanalysis
AT antoniobarrientos cleggedhexapodrobotdesignguidelinesbasedonenergyanalysis